Car Hits 2 Brothers Skating Across Street

With their parents trailing a few steps behind, two brothers were hit by a car Thursday as they tried to cross a street on in-line skates, police said.

The accident left one boy, a 10-year-old, in critical condition.

The North Hills family was heading north across Nordhoff Street at Burnet Avenue, an intersection with no marked crosswalk, about 3:35 p.m., said Sgt. Rod Grahek of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division.

Two cars traveling west stopped to let the family pass. The mother and father were on foot, carrying a toddler, while their sons skated ahead, police said.

The boys had almost reached the other side when they were struck by a 1985 Cadillac Fleetwood that tried to pass the cars that had stopped.

“The car passing on the right should yield for pedestrians in the intersection, although the kids on Rollerblades were moving faster than regular pedestrians,” said Officer James Akana, who is investigating the accident. “There was a little bit of contributory negligence on the part of both parties.”

The Cadillac’s driver, a 50-year-old North Hills woman, told police she did not see the children coming, Akana said. Neither boy was wearing a helmet.

The boys, accompanied by their mother, were airlifted to Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles.

The 10-year-old was on life support Thursday night, listed in critical condition, said hospital spokesman Steve Rutledge. He suffered head and abdominal injuries and a broken arm.

His younger brother, who is 9, was in fair condition with a broken arm, a broken leg, and facial cuts and bruises, Rutledge said.